Science have proved that we are criminals rather than libertarians.

[Wary]

British Kentuckian scientists looked at Google trends and have discovered that interest to bitcoins correlates with interest to illegal activity ("Silk Road"), but does not correlate with interest to freedom ("Free Market"). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13504851.2014.995359.  That is that drug traders are attracted to bitcoin, but libertarians aren't.

This is strange result and doesn't match with what we can see on the forum. First part can be explained - drug traders are not seen in bitcointalk because they are hiding. But the second part is mystery for me: there is a lot of libertarians on the forum (myself included), so why are we invisible for the scientists?

[polychenko]

Doesn't seem like a great paper, analyses Google search terms.

Does mention other papers though
"In order to understand the underlying rationale for Bitcoin use, Lui (2013) surveyed 1133 members of the Bitcoin community (by posting links on Bitcoin websites).6 The survey identified three key motives: curiosity, profit and political...."

[Jorge320]

http://www.kentucky.com/2015/05/29/3874687/uks-gatton-college-renegotiates.html

It's worthy to note that one of UK's biggest donor's is BB&T, see link...

Cheers!

[franky1]

British Kentuckian scientists looked at Google trends and have discovered that interest to bitcoins correlates with interest to illegal activity ("Silk Road"), but does not correlate with interest to freedom ("Free Market"). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13504851.2014.995359.  That is that drug traders are attracted to bitcoin, but libertarians aren't.

This is strange result and doesn't match with what we can see on the forum. First part can be explained - drug traders are not seen in bitcointalk because they are hiding. But the second part is mystery for me: there is a lot of libertarians on the forum (myself included), so why are we invisible for the scientists?

translation:
Kentuckian scientists looked at Google trends and have discovered that... national media reporters use google to do their research and have searched for bitcoin in conjunction with silkroad soo much that it has scewed the results away from what actual bitcoin users would search for.

[unholycactus]

I don't expect political use of Bitcoin is as widespread as you think. You might think so because it's a very vocal minority, especially on a place like here.

[neurotypical]

This is a really dumb and stretched out argument to make. It's like being on 1991 and saying the internet is for criminals only, because back in the day only hackers and people doing shady business was wit enough to use it frequently. Again, what an idiot. What can you expect? Ignore them.

[Za1n]

Does Kentucky even have scientists?

[teukon]

I would expect the terms "Bitcoin" and "Silk Road" to be better correlated than "Bitcoin" and "Free Market".  "Bitcoin" and "Silk Road" simply ARE closer to one another.  They're both new internet things.  "Free Market" is an old economic concept.

Also, let's not forget the assumption that people using the term "Free Market" on Google think and search in the same way as people using the term "Silk Road".

I find it odd that the authors remark clearly on how Bitcoin might be attractive to people that care about anonymity immediately before implicitly assuming that Google Trends accurately captures the efforts by such people to find out more.  I'm sure I'm not the only one here that uses DuckDuckGo.  I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the subset of research efforts tracked by Google is representative but the point certainly deserves more attention than "hard-to-observe clientele".

Finally, what kind of conclusion is:

We find robust evidence that computer programming enthusiasts and illegal activity drive interest in Bitcoin and find limited or no support for political and investment motives.

What fraction of people that search "Free Market" are free-market enthusiasts?
What fraction of people that search "Silk Road" are criminals?

[BIT-Sharon]

Who  do libertarians refer to indeed?

[jonald_fyookball]

you said it yourself, they're from Kentucky.  How scientific could they be?

[franky1]

science has nothing to do with google trends..
if a person is not playing with cells, atoms or forces of motion.. then he aint a scientist. i would have believed the article more if the kentucky researcher described himself as a researcher or statistician.. but if he cannot even understand his own job title or job description.. then what he reports is not really going to hold weight